THERE IS MORE TO LIFE

So the top
grade is all. As though our survival is entirely contingent on high marks. Now
does that explain, at least in part, the number of suicides our young commit owing
to thedeep obsession with marks encouraged by our parents, the community, and
the system. Do the marks mean more than the precious lives of our young ones?

There is no
gainsaying the academic perseverance of that young lady who scored 499/500 marks
at the CBSE exams. By all means, it is a terrific achievement, but one that
poses some fundamental questions. Does our system place an overwhelming
emphasis on the value of ‘scoring’ such high grades? Does such achievement bear
any reference to a child’s understanding of a given subject or competence?

There is clear
and present evidence that the tools needed to navigate life and its
complexities are often not derived
from top grades. A person needs more than just topmarks, he or she needs
character formation, effective communication skills, creativity and
problem-solving skills, interpersonal skills, values, and ethics, just to
mention a few.

It is
disheartening to note that there is a valorisation of top grades whilst
relegating the internalisation of the above attributes to the background. I recall
how a teacher once warned me that I maynot make the cut if I didn’t answer the questions
in theway prescribed by her. The only option to deliver as she expected me to
was by memorising ‘answers’ word for word!

So, is memorisation
the way?I have classmates who can
memorise a subject of sixmodules all in one day! The most shocking part— they aren’table
answer the same questions two days later. Something is awfully wrong.

What then is
the way forward? We need an education system that defines learning as the sum
total of character building, values, competence, and higher-orderunderstanding
of concepts and their application to life. Parents must encourage their
children to believe in themselves and should alsolove them unconditionally
irrespective of the marks they score.

This will help
children understand that life is not defined solely by top grades! Let’s do
away with this soul-killing marks-driven system.